In a typical poultry slaughtering and packaging operation, the birds are slaughtered, cleaned, eviscerated, washed and chilled in water and then hung by the hocks of the legs on shackles and conveyed to a packaging area. The typical bird as it hangs from its legs in the chilled condition becomes quite stiff and develops rigor mortis or a condition quite similar to it. In this condition, the bird is stretched-out and looks rather "skinny" and not appealing to a consumer. To compress the bird by bringing the legs and body into closer contact and, consequently, into a more appealing shape, requires significant manual effort and is not convenient or easy to do.
Accordingly, it is one object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for flexing the legs of stiff, cleaned, eviscerated poultry so that the legs may be readily re-flexed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic apparatus and method so that the legs of whole, stiffened, eviscerated birds may be flexed and placed in a condition so they may be re-flexed for manual and automatic packaging.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,904 which issued on June 4, 1963 to M. A. Howe, Jr. et. al. an apparatus for plumping and applying a wrapper to poultry is described. This apparatus is a horizontal vice-like device in which the poultry is essentially placed in what could be termed the "jaws" of the vice along with wrapping material and as the jaws close the poultry and wrapping material are compressed and the poultry is "plumped". However, this device is not readily adaptable to continuous in-line processing of poultry. Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which is readily adaptable to continuous on-line processing of poultry.
In German Patent Office Publication No. DE OS 2244103 which was filed on Sept. 8, 1972 under Application No. P22 44 103.8 by Jacob Hendrik Mosterd and which is entitled "Apparatus For Shaping Poultry", an apparatus for shaping slaughtered birds in-line is described that includes a pressure plate for shaping the chicken and includes a relatively complex mechanism to achieve the shaping of the poultry. Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus in which the number of parts and mechanism required is reduced so that ease of operation and maintenance is achieved.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,336 which issued on June 2, 1981 to William F. Altenpohl, et. al. a device is described which processes poultry releasably suspended from a conveyor and the poultry is forced into a bag after being released from the conveyor by passing through what appears to be loading "shoes" which act like movable shoehorns in guiding and shaping the poultry as it is placed into a bag. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a shaping device for poultry which is adaptable to both manual or automatic bag loaders.
The foregoing objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the following Summary of the Invention, Description of the Drawings, and Detailed Description.